I know. Its boring to hear people complain about the weather. We have weather all over. It is just that we have had more than our share. It has rained nearly every day for the past 3 weeks. Finally, we have had 3 days of sun. It is just that now that its sunny, its also in the 20's at night and fairly chilly during the day. I have been taking pictures from my house that show the same view at different times and sometimes on different days and they are pretty dramatic.
Also pretty. The leaves are falling...read that -gone- now....and the three days of autumn are beautiful. I had the 16-18 year old boys from church spend the night Friday night and we hiked Mt. Baldy (the mountain we live on). Our goal is to hike it once a month for the entire year, rain or sleet or now or gloom of night. So far we have made two trips and have taken different routes each time, and the hikes have been quite vertical. As the snow starts to make the trail slipperier, we may find hiking from the other side with snow shoes will be easier, but coming down just gets better.

I just took Beverly to the airport. She is flying to Phoenix where she will meet Rebecca. Rebecca has, by now, counted every possible Cuckoo bird in Arizona and since she is done, she is coming home. Beverly is joining her to help her drive. She is bringing all her stuff, and all the rest of the stuff she can stuff into her car. They plan to spend 10 days or 2 weeks on the trip and will have great tales to tell, I'm sure.

Jonathon is still on his Mission in Uruguay. We hear from him weekly and he is having a great time preaching the Gospel and loving the people. He has about another year to go.

Our lives are so blessed by our children and grandchildren and the beautiful place we are fortunate enought to live in, our friends and associates, and the Gospel of Jesus Christ. Until next time.
Eldon

Summer Gone and So Much To Do

You who are probably wallowing in global warming wouldn't understand, but the Alaskan Summer is over. We actually never really had an Alaskan Summer this year. It was more like an Alaskan Teaser. I actually kept track of our cold weather this year because I became a beekeeper this summer,and bees don't do much unless it is 60 degrees outside. They are, after all, cold blooded insects. Anyway, we didn't break 60 until 27-29 May when it was 62 degrees, and not again until the 13th of June. The closest we got to 70 was 69 degrees on 2 and 4 July. Since then we have been in the 50's and low to middle 60's. This is unusual. You can see how concerned we here in the subarctic are about global warming. It's our turn. For all you polar bear worriers, the pack ice decreased last summer, but we added more this year than we had when we started losing it last year. The planet cycles, but the enviro-wackos don't. They just file more lawsuits.

Robert and Bethany and the kids lived with us for a month or so, but moved in to a nice house on Ivy Home Circle off of Tradition right here in Eagle River. They are very excited and enjoying being in their very own home. They haven't closed on it yet, but will soon. Carolyn and Curtis also moved into a duplex in EagleWood and they too are quite happy about the change. Beverly and I are probably the most pleased because all of our grandchildren live within about 3 miles of us and we see them often.




Rebecca is still in Arizona counting cuckoo birds and she and Beverly will drive up together in the car that Sean bought on Ebay from Iraq. I guess you have to have something to do in Iraq. We hope he will be coming home in October.

Sarah and Chris graduated from BYU Idaho and Beverly and I flew down to attend their graduation ceremony. We were very pleased that they had reached this important milestone and that I got to shop at the Military Surplus Store in Idaho Falls.














On the way home, we stopped for two days to attend a DeKay family reunion north of Seattle 70 miles or so and had a great time reweaving our family ties. Sarah and Chris moved to Colorado Springs and Chris has found work in the computer field, which happens to be what his degree is in. They called a few days ago to inform us that Sarah is pregnant and in about 8 months and 1 week should have a new baby, if everything goes according to the normal plan.





We, selfish as we are, look forward to the arrival of another grandbaby with great excitement.


The two most recent babies, Catheryn (above) and Thomas (below) are growing up and have just about escaped the blob stage, so they are becoming much more fun.

So, our lives go on. Hopefully this post will lessen the criticism I have gotten from my children for being an infrequent poster. I now only have about a thousand other things to catch up on. Middle of the winter and I might get it all done. Or not. But for now, lots of love from Alaska.
Eldon